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The eye of a category 2 hurricane went right over my house (Erin – over Gulf Breeze in 1995). It was pretty terrible – The widows and doors of my house were bowing in with every gust and I thought they would blow in on top of us. Several neighbors lost the roofs. Trees with stout trunks were bowed sideways. Cannot imagine what its like for people in the path of this horrible storm.

May God protect these people, and then send them love and help in its aftermath.

I had Charlie go right over me years ago, and then Francis and Irene coming by shortly after convinced me to leave Florida. Until an eye goes over you, you can’t really quite grasp the extent to which these storms damage EVERYTHING where they hit. It’s also hard to explain the effect of that haunting sound. I’m glad I have a morbid imagination because it does seem like angry spirits are trying to rip your doors off to kill you. Oh, and the rain bands close to the eye are filled with tornadoes, so it’s like a giant spider from hell crawling all over you and then hatching a hundred babies all over you too. If you’re holed up there though, stay safe and try to enjoy it! You’ll probably only experience this once. May it just be hard enough you have good but not completely tragic stories to tell!

I’m in Clearwater, FL. Right now it looks like we’ll get a cool intermission. Keeping positive, as well prepared as we can possibly be (my libertarian prepper phase in my 20’s paid off). Lots of family staying with us tonight. Thanks for the prayers, and much prayer for our neighbors and fellow Floridians.

My uncles rode out Hurricane Camille, which passed over the “toe” of Louisiana in 1969. They said the sound of 190 mph winds is the same as a crowd of women shrieking. It lasted for hours and hours.

But as always, it’s the water that’s the main danger. Irma is glancing the coast, so it won’t be the height of surge that a perpendicular strike would give, but it’s still going to be catastrophic. I’m not saying the glancing is a good thing, because destruction will run the entire west coast of the state, while a perpendicular strike would only (“only”) flatten 50 miles.

The worst water damage will be after the hurricane-force winds have passed, when the trailing edge of the storm piles up water and waves with the west wind. Houses that survived the winds intact will be obliterated by a 10+ foot surge with waves on top.

We are from Tallahassee, which looks like it is going to be spared the worst case scenario for there. One thing I hate about a storm like this is that other folks taking it on the chin means better news for you – my heart breaks for people in the Naples area where it looks like the eye is right now. We evacuated to mobile on Friday, as we have a large family to worry about – and turned our house over to two families from Miami, friends of neighbors, who are hunkered down there now. We are praying for them and everyone else, and hoping that the worst effects for Tallahassee long term power outages.

I’ve been travelling to the British Virgin Islands for the last three decades, and about a dozen years ago contemplated buying a restaurant in St John USVI, so I’ve been following what reports (mostly social media for the first few days) I can get out of there.

To see the damage there (and in the USVI) juxtaposed with some asshat from CNN standing in tropical storm force winds and referring to downed street signs and six inches of water in the streets as “devastation” reminded me why I only turn the TV on half a dozen times a year.

Clearwater/Pinellas Co’s danger was water from rain and surge. The storm seemed to move pretty quickly north (vs Harvey)

The modern mobilization and concerted effort to protect property and people is amazing! A miracle and true gift from God. Thank you to all the public servants and volunteers! I still can’t believe there were relatively so few fatalities in Harvey. Reading up on hurricanes and major floods from 50-200 years ago really makes one appreciation modern technology and infrastructure.

(This doesn’t mean Midwest me doesn’t think heavy population in some of these coastal cities and bays–or in earthquake areas– is crazy; I guess some people (or my Pinellas County relatives) think the constant low level stress of someday facing The Big One is worth it to live in a tropical climate near a beach, or NYC.)

Safety for those facing Tropical storm Irma, and now to see what Jose does…

The storm weakened considerably as it went up the coast, which is probably the best we could have hoped for.
Alas, there’s now some concern that Jose will not be content with spinning aimlessly in the ocean, and may be considering a visit to the US too.

We live on the east coast of Florida, and our power just came back today. This is the sixth time we’ve evacuated from hurricanes since 1999, and I keep asking myself, “Why do we do this? Why do we live here?”

It’s because this place is so beautiful, so warm, and because Florida is a lean, mean hurricane-fighting machine. At this point, I would rather fight hurricanes in Florida than tornadoes in the midwest, snowstorms in the northeast, fires in the west, or earthquakes in California. When we were evacuating north to Orlando this Saturday, we passed hundreds of utility trucks driving south to get into position, many waving flags, including state flags from Texas, which just went through a storm of its own. It was one of the most encouraging, heart-warming things I’ve seen in a while, saying to me that Florida is ready, and we will be taken care of.

Yes, there is plenty of destruction, but the news isn’t telling you how quickly things are being restored. In our little beach town, most of the houses were without electricity after the storm passed late Sunday, but today, Tuesday night, most of the power is back on. Trees are being trimmed, debris is being carted out, garbage is even being picked up. Government doesn’t always do what it should, but here in Florida, it’s doing best what it should do best: picking up the pieces in the face of a natural disaster.

So we’ll stay where we are, enjoying the sun and surf while filling up gas cans every summer, watching the weather, and planning our next escape route. If nothing else, it teaches you to hold on to your possessions lightly, because they can easily be blown away!